Fans catching playoff fever

Faith that the Giants can win one of their final three games to secure the team’s first playoff appearance since 2003 and faith that the team’s strong pitching will hold off the San Diego Padres, the only remaining team battling San Francisco for the National League West Division title.

“All they can do is play strong and hard, and the rest is up to God,” longtime fan Annie Lewis, said. “I have faith.”

Lewis was one of the 37,261 fans at AT&T Park on Thursday to witness the Giants’ sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 4-1 victory. The win puts them one triumph away from playing in the postseason and increased their fervor going into this weekend, when they conclude the regular season with three games against the Padres.

Lewis, a season ticket-holder, sat in the left-field bleacher seats she has owned for years.

The 89-year-old Hayward woman has been to every home game, she said, since the Giants began playing in San Francisco in 1958 after arriving from New York. She shares her love of baseball with her two daughters and took stats of the Giants players — something she has been doing for decades — on a clipboard.

Lewis’ hat was adorned with dozens of Giants pins given to fans who stayed through late innings at Candlestick Park, where the team played before moving into AT&T Park in 2000. She cheered as loud as she could when catcher Buster Posey hit a home run into the left-field seats in the bottom of the sixth inning, boosting the Giants’ lead over Arizona to 4-1.

Posey’s homer ignited the fans’ frenzy, with cheering and chants echoing throughout the stadium as he rounded the bases.

Near the right-field wall, Daniel Chavez tried to drum up support for the Giants in the top of the eighth inning by chanting “C’mon, Giants!”

Chavez, who skipped work to attend the game, said he has been a fan for 30 years and vowed to be near AT&T Park throughout the weekend, even if he didn’t have tickets.

“I was raised right,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. A 12:45 game on a Thursday and look at the support.”

Chavez was confident the Giants would clinch the National League West title today in the series opener against the Padres. He said the win was a lock because Matt Cain is the starting pitcher for the Giants.

Jay Isaacson, 59, called the Giants being on the brink of the playoffs inevitable, even if they did start out rocky this season.

“They look like a team of destiny right now,” Isaacson said. “San Diego’s coming to play, but so are we. We want it.”

Tickets for series hard to come by

Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Giants history as they aim to clinch their first National League West Division title since 2003 will have to fork over some cash to get inside AT&T Park.

The official Giants website lists the next three days as sold out, but tickets can still be found on other websites.

For instance, standing-room-only tickets, which were going for $32 apiece a few days ago, are nowhere to be found, but sites such as stubhub.com have view reserve left-field seats for $70. Those willing to take a chance on Craigslist can expect to fork over $80 for third-level seats.